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Shifter
Shifter was a precursor project to Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver: a video game proposal conceived circa 1997 by Amy Hennig, Seth Carus, and Arnold Ayala of Crystal Dynamics. Though originally envisioned as a standalone concept, Shifter became associated with Legacy of Kain soon after Crystal Dynamics (later with Eidos Interactive) secured rights to continue the series. Before production on the game began, Hennig's management asked her team to adapt the proposal into a sequel to Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain. The existence of the Shifter project, and its relation to Soul Reaver, did not publicly come to light until 2002. Shifter's post-apocalyptic story concept was loosely influenced by Paradise Lost, and included prototypical versions of the characters of Raziel, Elder Kain, the Council, and the Elder God. Most of the proposal's core features carried over to Soul Reaver; the ideas of shifting between planes, gliding, and open world data streaming survived into the final product, relatively unchanged. Profile *'Category:' Precursor project (Games and media) *'Precursor to:' Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver (1999) *'Developer:' Crystal Dynamics *'Publisher:' Eidos Interactive Background Initial discovery Soul Reaver credited Amy Hennig and Seth Carus for its "Original Game Concept," and Arnold Ayala for "Initial Concept Art." Hennig mentioned in interviews that the game was first conceptualized around February 1997, and entered full production in October of that year. She stated that its total development cycle lasted about two and a half years. The production of Soul Reaver had been overshadowed by an ongoing lawsuit between the developers of Blood Omen, Silicon Knights, and its publisher, Crystal Dynamics: a fight for ownership of the franchise. Shifter at The Lost Worlds (by Ben Lincoln) Silicon Knights alleged that Crystal Dynamics had stolen their concept for "Kain II", and attempted to prevent the new game from being marketed. The dispute was privately resolved, and Crystal Dynamics ultimately retained permission to use the Blood Omen intellectual property. Later, in 2002, Silicon Knights president Denis Dyack posted a public comment at IGN concerning these events, and on Soul Reaver, revealing new specifics about its origins: }} Crystal Dynamics did not directly acknowledge Dyack's summary, but, in 2004, Ben Lincoln, of The Lost Worlds fansite, made a post challenging some of his contentions. Lincoln said: }} Legacy of Kain: Defiance environment artist Desdemon endorsed this account, replying, "Ben summed it up pretty well. Anything more I could add is confidential." In 2007, Lincoln reiterated his description of Shifter in an article on his website. He said, "no actual production work was ever done on Shifter as a standalone title - it was strictly a paper design document. Although its influence on the final game is obvious, Soul Reaver was firmly set in the same world as Blood Omen before any other work began on it." Lincoln also noted that "some fans further believed that because the concept was revealed by Dyack, Shifter had been a Silicon Knights project which was "stolen" in some way by Crystal Dynamics. This is also incorrect." However, in a 2008 interview with 1UP.com, Dyack reasserted his views. He mentioned that "when we were doing Legacy of Kain, we had a lot of research into vampire mythology and a lot of ideas on where we were going. Crystal Dynamics merged in this entirely different game that had nothing to do with the series and then slapped the IP on it, and that's where Soul Reaver came from." Definitive comment on the Shifter project from its original creators remained elusive. Subsequent revelations Synopsis Shifter was Crystal Dynamics' earliest concept for the game which would eventually become Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. Conceived as early as 1995 and originally intended for release as a standalone title, its ideas were "merged" with the Legacy of Kain series when Crystal Dynamics and Eidos Interactive obtained the license to the franchise. According to The Lost Worlds, no concrete production work was ever commenced on the standalone Shifter concept,Shifter at The Lost Worlds (by Ben Lincoln) but several artworks by Arnold Ayala have been released.Character concept art at Dogma5150′s Blog Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver credits Amy Hennig and Seth Carus with devising its original game concept - most likely the Shifter project.Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver manual. Crystal Dynamics (Eidos Interactive). PlayStation. (August 16, 1999) The Shifter concepts were developed as early as 1995-1996 (though more likely 1997Legacy of Kain: Defiance Designer Diary #2 at GameSpot (by Richard Lemarchand)) at Crystal Dynamics, and detailed numerous plot elements and motifs which would be incorporated into Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver. The premise of the title would involve a plane-shifting protagonist cast down by his master and brothers, who would return to hunt them down - precursor characters to Raziel, Elder Kain and The Council. Thematically, Shifter would prominently incorporate angelic and biblical imagery. Evidence of Shifter first publicly surfaced when Denis Dyack of Silicon Knights issued a response to many fans who had inquired about the direction they had planned to steer the series in.Something interesting Denis Dyack once said at IGN (by HGLatino) Stating that Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver was a major departure from their original plans and that Crystal Dynamics had no access to their own concepts for a sequel to Blood Omen: Legacy of Kain, Dyack elaborated: :"In fact, Razeal sic was never meant to be in the Kain series at all. Originally he was in a game originally titled Shifter – a game with an angelic theme where you shifted between 2 planes to complete the game. Crystal Dynamics did not have confidence that this game would do well as an original title so midway through the development cycle they slapped Legacy of Kain title on it, gave Razeal the Soul Reaver and went on to call it Soul Reaver." Dyack briefly reiterated this synopsis of Shifter in a 2008 interview.Denis Dyack on Story and Content in Games, Part 2 at 1UP (by Phillip Kollar) According to Ben Lincoln of The Lost Worlds, Shifter was "strictly a paper-design document" and "Soul Reaver was firmly set in the same world as Blood Omen before any other work began on it." While its influence on Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is clear, Crystal Dynamics have never publicly commented on the project, although Arnold Ayala's early concept art for The Shifter and The Master was uncovered in July 2010 by Divine Shadow.Shifter - Initial project concept art, very early protagonist and antagonist designs at Nosgothic Realm (by Divine Shadow) Some of this art has also appeared in bonus materials for Soul Reaver 2 and Legacy of Kain: Defiance, but was not openly attributed to the Shifter project in these instances. In an interview in October 2012, Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver Director Amy Hennig publicly confirmed the project for the first time, commenting: :"The Shifter concept was the genesis of the game that would become Soul Reaver; the core ideas were all there. The hero was an undead creature, able to shift between the spectral and material realms, and glide on the tattered remains of his wing-like coattails. We conceived the spirit realm as a twisted, expressionistic version of the physical world. The hero was bent on revenge after being betrayed and cast down by his creator – like Raziel, he was a dark savior figure, chosen to restore balance to a blighted, dystopian world. When we were asked to adapt this concept into a sequel to Blood Omen, our challenge was to take all these ideas and merge them creatively into the Legacy of Kain mythos.". Henning further elaborated that their original vision had also included a number of secondary features that were pared back, including shape-shifting abilities. Despite "all the changes we went through over the course of development", she still considered the final Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver release as "pretty close" to the original Shifter concept, maintaining its core content.Behind the Classics: Amy Hennig Talks Soul Reaver Secrets at Playstation.Blog (by Amy Hennig) Gallery SR1-Character-KainRaziel-Ayala-Cover011.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Shifter (Raziel) SR1-Character-Raziel-Ayala-Shiftr141.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Shifter (Raziel) SR1-Character-Raziel-Ayala-Raziel061.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Shifter (Raziel) SR1-Character-Raziel-Ayala-Raziel041.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Shifter (Raziel) SR1-Character-Raziel-Raz3rdMagConcept.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Shifter (Raziel) SR1-Character-Raziel-Ayala-Raziel071.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Shifter (Raziel) SR1-Character-Raziel-Ayala-Shifter11.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Shifter (Raziel) SR1-Character-Raziel-Ayala-Shifter31.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Shifter (Raziel) SR1-Character-Raziel-EarlyRaz.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Shifter (Raziel) SR1-Character-KainRaziel-Ayala-RazKain1.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Shifter (Raziel) SR1-Character-Raziel-Raz2ndMagConcept.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Shifter (Raziel) SR1-Character-Raziel-Ayala-Raziel051.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Shifter (Raziel) SR1-Character-Kain-Ayala-Kain011-A.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Master (Elder Kain) SR1-Character-Kain-Ayala-Kain021.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Master (Elder Kain) SR1-Character-Kain-Ayala-Kain31.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Master (Elder Kain) SR1-Character-Kain-Ayala-Kain041.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Master (Elder Kain) SR1-Character-Kain-Ayala-Kain052.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Master (Elder Kain) SR1-Character-Kain-Ayala-Kain053.jpg|An Arnold Ayala concept for the Master (Elder Kain) See also * Shifter at The Lost Worlds (by Ben Lincoln). References Category:Cut content Category:Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver Category:Precursor projects